The Lost Powers
by You'llNeverKnow1212
Summary: If the Ancient Ones are to be stopped, the power of the Olympians will not be enough. A hero will have to seek out the secrets to the Lost Power, or the world as we know it will literally fall apart. And naturally, that hero is none other than Perseus Jackson. First fanfic.
1. Intro

_Summary: If the Ancient Ones are to be stopped, the power of the Olympians will not be enough. A hero will have to seek out the secrets to the Lost Power, or the world as we know it will literally fall apart. And naturally, that hero is none other than Perseus Jackson._

* * *

Olympus had been through much, and after defeating both the Titans and Gaea, some thought that nothing remained that could topple the mighty kingdom. However, even Zeus who was doing his best to remain oblivious to the rest of the world for at least a good few centuries could not ignore the ominous signs approaching. The fate of the world was being discussed at a council, but as was usual for Olympus, little seemed to be getting done.

"SILENCE!" Zeus's voice roared over the general clamor of the hall. Slowly, the voices died down and Zeus stood to make his point. "We have sensed that there have been strange disturbances of power coming from the east. We must determine what is to be done about them."

"Who can they be? The Titans and Primordials have already been defeated. What else could be a threat to us?" asked Hera. The other Olympians were also confused for the most part, but then Artemis, who had recently returned form a scouting trip to the east spoke up.

"I know every monster's name that ever walked the earth," said Artemis. "But what I felt was an unknown threat. They had such a strong aura of power that it would overwhelm even Olympus." As this news settled in, slowly all fell silent. Never had there been a being that was stronger than all the gods combined. They had no idea how to deal with such a foe, so they turned to the wisest among them. Athena remained in deep thought for a minute, then voiced her thoughts.

"This is a matter beyond our power. But in certain circumstances, a demigod can be infinitely more powerful than any god or goddess." While the majority of the Olympians had no idea what she was talking about, surprisingly it was Apollo who said in an unusually serious tone, "Athena, putting that kind of power into the wrong hands could be the end of us all. How can we trust a demigod with such an impossible task?"

"We have no choice." Zeus then concluded the meeting, and sighed. Things never seemed to settle down for the Olympians. And now to rely on a demigod again? It was beneath him. But the council had spoken so Zeus knew what had to be done.

Calling up Hermes, Zeus said, "Go to Perseus and inform him of our plans for him." The wing-footed messenger nodded and took off.


	2. The Summons

_Percy POV_

After years of intense fighting and training, it felt good to relax. The naiads bubbled in the lake, lava crept up the climbing wall, and there was an occasional cry of pain among the clashing of swords in the arena. All in all, a typical camp day. I had just visited Chiron in the Big House who had wanted to talk to me. I had been happy to go, but his words caused me to feel a little uneasy when I left. '_Percy, in spite of all you have done, do not let your guard down.' 'Why?' I had asked. 'I've defeated pretty much everything there is to beat.' His reply was grave, even for Chiron. 'I have a feeling you will soon be up against something much, much worse.' _

Though I trusted Chiron and his advice, the thought of something else lying in wait for me seemed absurd on such a normal day. _Even Chiron has to be wrong once in a thousand years, right? _I thought as I opened the door to my cabin. But just before I shut the door behing me, I glanced up at the sky and didn't like what I saw. Huge gray storm clouds gathered above the sky within the boundaries of Camp Half-Blood, and I sensed that something was off. After all, the weather was usually good unless something serious was wrong. _Maybe I should ask Annabeth. She would know what to do. _But my thoughts were interrupted by a voice. "Doesn't look to good, does it Percy?" I hear from behind me.

I whirled around and saw a familiar figure standing in the corner of my cabin. "Lord Hermes!" I said. "Why are you here?" Now I knew that there was something serious going on. "Can't I drop by to visit once in a while?" Hermes replied easily. I raised my eyebrows, suspicious. Sighing Hermes said, "Actually, I'm here to deliver a message." He paused for a few moments, then went on. "We have detected a sinister presence coming from the east. We have good reason to think that they are planning to attack and overthrow us in the near future, and that we may not be powerful enough to stop them." "I don't see why you're telling me this," I put in, knowing full well what the Olympians wanted me to do.

"You, Perseus, have been chosen to go on a special quest to gain possession of the Lost Power. By doing that, you will be strong enough to defeat whatever threat you may face." '_Great',_ I thought_. 'I save the world twice in two years, and I don't even get two months off.'_ "I don't know anything about a lost power," I said. "How am I supposed to find it?" To this Hermes replied, "You will be given the details once you set out on the quest. Now my time here is up." I averted my eyes as Hermes flashed away.

My head swam with everything that Hermes had just told me. _Find the Lost Power? Defeat something more powerful than the Greek gods themselves? What did this all mean?_ I had to tell somebody, so I went to go find Annabeth.

* * *

Annabeth's stormy eyes were lost deep in thought as she listened to what I had been told. Finally, she said,"I'm not sure what the presence from the east is, but my guess would be... No, it's not possible," she trailed off. As usual, I felt completely out of things. "What do you mean, I asked. "What's impossible?" She regarded me seriously for a second, and then said, "My only guess is that they are the Ancient Ones."

"Umm... What are the Ancient Ones?" The name seemed foreign and awkward on my tongue. "Have you never read '_The Complete Text of All Monsters and Dangerous Creatures Ever Known to Demigods' ?"_ Annabeth asked, exasperated. I just gave her a blank look and she rolled her eyes. "Never mind," she said. "There is very little known about the Ancient Ones, but from what is known, they are a very powerful and secretive society of demons, who make up the group called The Hierarchy." I was confused. "What do demons have to do with Greece?" I asked. It surprised me that something unknown and not Greek could be out there. Annabeth said,"Well, if the Olympians are real, then why can't other things be? I guess you have to talk to Chiron if you want more information."

I guess it all made sense, but still... I didn't know what these demons were or how to fight them. I said goodbye to Annabeth and decided that I should listen to her and talk to Chiron. Making my way over to the Big House, I noticed the sun was starting to set, and somehow, camp didn't look quite so peaceful anymore.

* * *

Before I reached the door, it swung open and Chiron, in centaur form, trotted out. He looked about and saw me approaching. "Ah Percy, I was just about to look for you," Chiron said trying to keep his tone light, but his face betrayed the fact that whatever he was going to tell me was not good news. "I take it that you have been informed of your quest by Hermes?" When I nodded, he continued, "Get your stuff ready for you'll leave tomorrow at dawn."

"Tomorrow? Nobody even told me the details yet!" I said, surprised. "You will be told everything tomorrow," he said. "And Percy, you will not like this, but you must go alone."

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	3. The Quest

**mohahassan3-** **Hopefully the chapters will get longer as the story progresses. Thanks for the review.**

That night, I had my usual pre-quest nightmares. But somehow, they were different. I found myself standing in an uncomfortably warm underground cavern. It stretched on and on until it faded into empty blackness. Then a fissure opened to my left. Startled I turned to see the crack widen into a river of lava. '_So you are the mighty hero.' _A mocking voice came from the lava. Slowly, the lava started bubbling higher and higher, compressing together, until it formed a face. I tried to get a better look at it, but the shadows seemed to move and conceal it no matter what I angle I looked at it from. _'You blindly venture on your impossible task, not knowing that you will never return.' _What the figure said was basically identical to what I heard from the Titans and Gaea before, but for some reason, it's words sent a new sense of dread through me. A sudden wind picked up, sending pebbles flying through the air. A couple stung my cheeks, and suddenly I realized what was off about this dream. I was actually in it. _Physically._ My body was actually standing in the cavern, just as if I were awake.

A booming laugh echoed off the walls of the cavern, and it sounded horrible, reverberating through the air until it seemed that it had filled up all the space in the huge opening. It was suddenly hard to breathe. _So you notice your predicament. You have no chance of succeeding in your quest, but all the same- I will take no chances. Me and my brothers will destroy you. _Then I knew I had to get out of there. I knew that I didn't stand a chance against what I was facing, and I didn't want to die. My mind was thinking '_RUN!'_ but my legs wouldn't respond. _Do not worry little hero. I will not kill you yet. But soon... _Then his form melted back into the lava, which rose and formed animage- a flaming horned skull and two symbols I didn't understand. I stood transfixed, staring, and didn't realize what was going to happen until it was too late. I yelled, my upper left arm searing as the image was branded deep into my skin, straight from the river of lava. The pain was unbearable and I fell over in agony.

Then, I woke up. My heart pounding, I just lay in bed for a minute, then sat up and immediately looked at my arm. It still tingled but the excruciating pain was gone. When I lifted the sleeve of my shirt up, I saw it- the same mark that had been formed from the lava river in my dream. I was revolted. What did the mark mean, and why had the creature branded me with it? As usual, I had just thought of a lot of questions that I didn't have the answer to, but one thing I did know: whatever the creature was- and I assumed it was an Ancient One- I didn't want to quest against it, and I sure as heck didn't want to fight it. But with my luck, I'd be forced to go on this quest one way or another. I looked out my cabin's window and saw the first rays of sunlight filtering through. Though I didn't want to, I knew that putting off waking up wouldn't work, so I forced myself to get out of bed and ready for my quest.

* * *

Chiron was waiting for me at the Big House. I had half expected him to be at the top of Half-Blood Hill waiting to see me off, but then I remember he had to tell me the details. '_Great' _I thought. _'More bad news.' _When I entered the Big House, Chiron, who was in wheel chair form, gestured for me to sit next to him at the ping-pong table.

"So what do you have to tell me Chiron? Don't I need a prophecy from the Oracle?" I asked. The Oracle always gave a prophecy to those who led quests. So I was surprised when Chiron shook his head. "No Percy, your quest is special. There is no prophecy; no way to tell what the future may hold in store for you." I wanted to say that maybe he was being a little too negative, speaking in his ominous tone and all, but I sensed that it might not have been the best time. Chiron continued, "Percy, the quest that the Olympians have decided to send you on is unprecedented and extremely dangerous. It involves going on many dangerous trials and fighting foreign foes, the likes of which you have never encountered before. Your final goal is to rediscover the Lost Powers, a collection of powers that will make you one of the most powerful beings in the universe. But as to what these powers are I have no knowledge, because, as the name suggests, they have been missing for a very long time. If you are successful, you will eventually be fighting-"

"The Ancient Ones?" I interrupted. Chiron looked surprised. "How did you know?" I told him of my talk with Annabeth. After listening to what I had to say, Chiron said, "Yes, that is what I thought. As Annabeth said, little is known about the Ancient Ones, but remember that they are very organized and are rumored to have a secretive group that carries out their evil plans. I cannot help you with the trials you will face on your quest, but I can tell you that to start off, you should visit Factory 71. It is the only way you can stand against your enemies; you must be modified." I wasn't sure what that meant, but it didn't sound very good to me. But then I remembered my dream from last night. "Chiron-" I started, then hesitated. I knew I should tell him everything that happened, but I didn't want to reveal my brand. I was ashamed and felt tainted. I decided I wouldn't mention it and told him the rest of my encounter with the demon.

Chiron said, "This is bad news. To have the power to actually bring you to your dream world physically- that is tremendous." Then he seemed to realize that maybe all this serious talk was freaking me out, which it was. Standing up, Chiron trotted out of the Big House up to the field, where an army truck was waiting for me. On the way, he said, "Percy, though the trials are many and the dangers are great, I believe that you can complete this quest. Just remember, you must not lose faith. Remember what you fight for." And with that, he trotted away.

* * *

I walked up to the army truck, wondering why it was there in place of the normal camp van with Argus at the driver's seat. When I had got within 5 feet of it, the truck's door swung open and Hermes stepped out. I didn't know what was going on. Argus was the head of security, so he should have been driving me to where I needed to go. If he wasn't trusted with the job, then this quest must be _really _bad.

"What are you doing here at camp? And where's Argus and the camp van?" I asked Hermes. "Well this is a special quest after all. Since the world's fate lies on your shoulders, we gods couldn't let you just die 10 miles from the camp by some common monster could we?" "Nice to see you have so much faith in me," I muttered. Hermes then added as an afterthought, "Plus Father made me escort you from camp because he said I was the god of travelers and you were traveling on your quest, so here I am." Let's get you to Factory 71."

I clambered into the passenger seat of the truck, trying to remember about Factory 71. As it was, not much was coming to mind. '_I wish I could have asked Annabeth about it.' _I thought. I hadn't even gotten to say goodbye to any of my friends. But maybe it was for the best; they probably would have tried to follow me and gotten hurt. My thought drifted off and I zoned out, just staring at the passing roads. Then I pulled myself together. _Stupid ADHD_ I thought. But after ten minutes, the only things I could come up with about Factory 71 was that it was a lab where there were lots of experiments and testing that probably wasn't strictly legal. So that's why it was located near the border in Canada, where apparently nobody cared. I wasn't sure what would happen when I got there, and I didn't think that I really wanted to know, but there was nothing I could do but sit and wait while my truck headed out of the US and into foreign lands.

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	4. Factory 71

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Hermes dropped me off in the middle of a vacant lot around midnight. It was nothing special, just empty ground littered with garbage, and there was nothing that looked remotely similar to a factory in sight. In fact, there were no buildings at all. To either side of me were trees and in front of me was a dirt road, so I guessed that I was in the forest or woods or something. I started walking down the path, swinging Riptide idly as I went. Normally I would keep it capped and in pen form, but walking alone down a dirt path in the middle of the night reminded me of all the warnings Chiron had gave me, and I didn't want to walk unprotected.

After I'd walked about two minutes, the path widened and the trees fell back. In front of me was a building that was basically a gray, metal box. Though it had no sign, I knew it had to be Factory 71. I just stood there, remembering the conversation I had had with Hermes in the truck on the way here.

_'What do you know about Factory 71? I don't remember anything about it.' I asked. Hermes replied, 'It's basically just a place where Hephaestus's kids go when they're kicked out to perform dangerous and illegal experiments, often ones that cause many lives to be lost in the process. But they come up with some pretty cool stuff.' 'Why are they kicked out from camp?' I asked. 'Oh, mutilations, murder, the usual," he said, bored with the conversation._

So I guessed that this place wasn't all sunshine and happy faces. I reached the door, which took me a minute to find because it was nondescript and fit in perfectly with the wall. There was no doorbell or anything, so I just knocked. I wasn't sure how anyone heard it through the thick metal of the door, but after a while, the door slid open from bottom to top, kind of like a garage door.

For a moment I couldn't see anything as my eyes adjusted to the bright light indoors instead of the darkness outside. I stepped forwards and surveyed the room. It was small with cushioned chairs at the edges, just like a hospital waiting room. When I looked for the person that opened the door, I couldn't find anyone. Since there was nobody there, I decided to go down the hall to the right. The walls and floor was white marble, and the light reflecting off them still made me feel slightly disoriented. I took a closer look at the walls on either side of me. I saw a number of doors, all fitting in perfectly with the wall just like the door at the entrance of the building. On each door was a small sign. Stopping I read the words '_Testing Subjects: Warning! May be dangerous, do not open'._

_Okayyy_ I thought. Not that I didn't want to help them or anything, but what if they attacked me? Then I realized that Chiron had sent me here to be experimented on myself, or 'modified' as he put it. I turned and made my way towards the door at the end of the hall, though not quite so fast this time.

* * *

The first thing I noticed was that the door was less like a collapsible part of the wall and more like a normal door. It was unmarked, but I could tell that whoever I had to see was behind this door. Taking a deep breath, I pushed the door open.

This room looked more like the laboratory I was expecting to see when I first walked in the Factory. There were vials on liquids that looked like the acid I had accidentally created in chemistry class last year, different contraptions that would probably have fascinated Annabeth, and a huge pile of ashes in the corner, which had a sign that read _'Crematorium'._ I tried not to think about where those ashes had come from. Then somebody cleared their throat and I remembered what I had come for. I whirled around, expecting to see someone big like Beckendorf, but instead I found myself facing a wiry man about my height who I guessed was around 30.

"Umm... I came here to be modified," I found myself saying, hoping that the guy would know what that meant, because I sure didn't.

"I know that. Hermes told me. Do you really think that you would have gotten past the mutants otherwise?" Now that I noticed it, his eyes were looking at me as if I were just another experiment, and I felt distinctly uncomfortable. That and his stereotypical mad-scientist hair made me feel like he was a crazy guy who was about to crack. I started to ask what he meant by 'mutants' but then I remembered the testing cells that I had walked past and thought the better of it.

"So... are we going to do this?" I asked nervously. He opened his mouth to reply, but just then a bloodcurdling scream ripped through the air and I jumped about a foot into the air. "What the heck was that?" I pulled Riptide out and got ready for an attack. Glancing over at the evil scientist guy, I expected him to be on the defensive too. But he was just standing and frowning at being interrupted.

"Oh, the testing must have begun for the day, that's all." he said. Then he turned, made his way to the far side of the lab, typed a long alphanumerical sequence into a keypad, and a steel trapdoor just appeared in the middle of the floor. He turned to me and said, "Follow me. It's best that we continue somewhere more private." I didn't like how that sounded, but I trailed behind him, seeing as I had no choice.

"What does it mean to be 'modified'?" I asked. The idea of my body being messed around with didn't appeal to me at the best of times, but now it sounded horrible. In fact, I was ready to bolt; the only thing stopping me was the thought of crazy zombie mutant lying in wait for me as I escaped.

The guy, who's name I still didn't know, looked happy for the first time since I met him. "It means that I've been given permission to try all my theories and beta-mode experiments to try to make you more powerful in any way possible by Chiron." We had descended into a darker, smaller room, but it didn't seem any safer to me. If anything, the numerous weapons and tools lying casually on the tables seemed all the sharper and more dangerous.

"Nice to know they asked me for consent," I muttered. The scientist ignored me and started studying something on one of the machines to my left. After a minute, he switched a lever, and straightened up.

"Good thing I managed to catch that mistake," he commented. "Don't want to fry you up before I've tried all my experiments." Seemingly oblivious to the look on my face, he continued. "So what have you brought as payment for being modified?"

The way I saw it, he should be paying me for allowing him to try his new experiments, but I wisely chose not to voice my opinions. Instead I just said, "Nothing. Nobody told me I had to pay you." For some reason, this riled him up.

"What do you mean you didn't bring payment? Do you think that we're a nonprofit organization!" he yelled with a shudder. "How do you expect us to pay for all this-" here he gestured to the room with his hands dramatically, then kept going "-if you don't pay us for our work?" I just stood there, not knowing how to respond. He had been super-composed until he just snapped a few minutes ago. He sighed and said, "I guess I'll let it go if you agree to have the more dangerous tests that even we haven't dared experiment with on our subjects. There will probably be some side effects."

I started to say something along the lines of _"How about no?" _but apparently the guy didn't really need my consent because he didn't wait for a response.

"Well, that's settled then. We'd better get these tests started, they might take a while." The next thing I knew, a pair of giant mechanical arms were holding me in place as a bunch of wires and electrodes were attached to my body. I strained against them, but they didn't budge. The last thing I remembered was the lights turning out and the glint of the crazy man's eyes just before everything went dark.


	5. Seal

**Thanks to ****Sorry that username is taken** and **violleet **for reviewing! On with the story:

Suddenly, the world turned dark, but instead of passing out I found myself in a dream-like vision. At first I panicked, thinking about the strange dream with the demon and it branding me. But this dream felt different, more like my usual dreams that I used to have. In fact, it seemed similar to another dream I had had long ago, but I couldn't remember which. Anyways, I found myself standing in a clearing filled with grass. It was peaceful and very unlike the dark, uncomfortably hot cavern I had been in during my previous nightmare. I looked around me, but saw nobody. I waited for a few more moments, but still nothing showed up.

Now I was feeling nervous. '_What if there was something wrong with the experiments?' _I thought. _'What if Grover just died and I'm in that vegetative state he was talking about?'_ That thought about Grover made me remember the feeling I had that was so similar to the one I was feeling now. It felt like I was being watched, that I was connected with something. It was just like me and Grover's empathy link. But who was trying to link with me? There was nothing there.

As I was thinking all this, my head started throbbing. Gently at first, so soft I hardly noticed, but gradually getting more noticeable and painful. It seemed like something was hammering against my brain, but mentally, not physically. To sum it up, it felt just like it did when I was back in 7th grade taking one of Mrs. Dodds impossible math quizzes specially designed to help me fail. Then, after a particularly painful jolt, I collapsed to the grass.

I can't exactly explain what happened in the next few minutes. I drifted in and out of consciousness, seeing darkness. _Red _darkness. Don't ask me how I could see darkness, or how it was red, but it was. Once or twice I thought I saw a tongue of a flame, so hot it was almost white, blinding against the dark background before it was swallowed up again. Then, suddenly, it all stopped. My last thought was that the scientist had terminated the experiment, that it had failed and I had died. Then I blacked out for good.

* * *

I opened my eyes, half-expecting to still be having visions. Instead, I found myself in a small room that looked kind of like a solitary confinement jail cell- small, white, and boring. My head still throbbed like I was having a migraine and the brand on my arm that I had almost forgotten burned with excruciating pain. Just then, the scientist walked into the room, carrying a clipboard that had a bunch of papers on them. '_Probably just some notes'_ I thought, but the idea of him taking observations on me was kind of weird. It made me feel like I was an animal on display at the zoo. He walked over silently, stared at me for a few seconds, and scribbled something down on his paper that I couldn't read but probably said something like _'Well, he survived.'_

I tried to sit up and managed to prop myself against the wall, banging my head against it and sending a fresh wave of pain through my skull as I did so. That combined with the brilliant white of the room was enough to give me a headache even if I hadn't just had my head messed with. _Why am I stuck in this little room? It doesn't look like a lab or experiment room to me. It looks like the- the testing cells!_ I knew there was something shady about the guy who I was dealing with, and I wouldn't put it beneath him to stick me in a cell for some extra observations or something.

"Why did you put me in this cell? It's a testing cell right?" I demanded. The scientist guy looked up and frowned as if annoyed that he was interrupted while doing his little note taking.

"Well, you are a testing subject, so it's only right that we place you in a testing cell." That actually sounded logical, and I breathed an almost inaudible sigh of relief. So this was just temporary. He was going to let me go.

I decided to voice my thoughts. "So when can I leave?" I asked.

The scientist said, "Leave? Nobody's leaving. See, I need to keep you here for at least the next few months to watch your reaction to this test. It was after all, the most dangerous one." The '_dangerous' _part didn't sound to good, but the '_not leaving' _part was even worse. My friends were counting on me. The whole _world _was counting on me. The scientist said, "Plus your capture has been well-paid for." _'Wait a second.' _I thought. _'That statement sounds familiar.' _When I thought about it, so did the voice. The scientist was making his way out of the room, but I stepped in his way._  
_

"Geryon! It's you isn't it?" I asked. I tried to sound nonchalant, like _'Hey it's no big deal. It's not like I'm afraid of being locked up in a room with a monster and without my sword.' _But I was afraid it didn't turn out that way. For a second it seemed as if the man was debating whether he should lie and say no, but then he snapped his fingers and turned into the same three-bodied ranch owner that I remembered him to be. In fact, he was still holding his barbecue forks. He smiled at me, and I backed up slowly. _Why couldn't he have stayed dead for at least a few more years?_

I never did get to nail your head on my wall as a trophy, Jackson. No matter, that spot will have to do," said Geryon, pointing to a spot just above the doorframe. There was no way I could hold him off without my sword, let alone kill him. Plus there were no bows and arrows lying around, and I had a feeling that even if there was, Hera wouldn't be so keen to help guide my shot this time around.

Geryon just leisurely approached me like I was his cornered prey. Which, when I thought about it, was true in a way, but that didn't mean I had to like it. "You never did know what side to take Jackson. You may have defeated the Titans and Gaea, but there is no way that the Ancient Ones will fall to you. Even now, as we speak, danger looms up on your friends at your worthless little demigod camp. A shame you won't be able to save them now." If I was angry before, it was nothing compared to the rage I felt right now. My friends were in danger, and it was all because of the monster standing in front of me. There was no way I was going to let him stop me.

Something changed, maybe it was the fact that it melt like molten lava had replaced the blood streaming through my veins, or maybe it was how my vision seemed to darken until the only visible color was red. I felt the same connection that I had during my experiment, sort of like an empathy link but more powerful. My brand was burning again, but instead of the agonizing pain I had felt before, it made me feel powerful, more powerful than I had ever felt before including the time that I was Hercules in my dream. Geryon must have seen a change, because he lunged at me, abandoning his earlier ambling pace. I channeled all my anger at him, and suddenly I felt myself become part of a larger force, something larger than any one person or thing. Geryon was engulfed with flames before he was able to take two steps in my direction. The rush suddenly faded, leaving me feeling like I had just experienced a huge sugar crash. But the damage had been done- Geryon lay disintegrating before me, and it looked like I had caused some serious damage to Factory 71, which now had a huge hole burnt through it.

"Impossible," came the voice of the disintegrating monster. "It should have consumed you, not merged..." he finished crumbling into yellow dust. I didn't know what he meant, but I didn't stop to think about it, because at that moment a scream erupted from a destroyed testing cell right next to mine. Not exactly wanting to meet any hybrid creatures at the moment, I turned and ran for the exit, before remembering something. Turning around, I made my way to the room with the steel trapdoor, and sure enough, lying on the table was my sword, Riptide, in pen form. It was obvious that somebody had been messing around with it, but I heard some scraping noises coming from the other side of the trapdoor. I felt that I had had enough adventure for a day and didn't really want to meet any new monsters, so I decided that I could worry about Riptide later and focus on getting out of the still-burning building. It was already getting harder to breathe as the blaze sucked up the oxygen in the building. I just found the huge hole that now served as the exit to the building and leaped out before the building exploded behind me. The explosion was huge, and I was propelled through the air even though the explosion was at the back of the building. It was no surprise though. I figured there would be lots of flammable objects.

I turned away from the wreck and made my way towards the forest. The sun was at it's peak and the air was uncomfortably hot, so I guessed it was around noon. Glancing back at the ruins of once was Factory 71, I realized that I had caused this mess. I was dangerous, unstable, a _monster. _Then I realized where my thoughts were going and quickly suppressed them. I couldn't afford to break down. _My friends need me. My friends need me. _I kept saying this over and over again in my head and trudged on, not knowing exactly where I was going. I didn't know what to do next and I didn't feel very powerful at that moment. And the whole time, the thought kept lingering in the back of my mind, not leaving no matter how hard I tried to quell it. _W__hat is wrong with me?_


	6. Where Next?

**Sorry for the late update, I kind of had a combination of writers block and no time. I can't promise another chapter this week because I have finals, but after that i'll finally be out of school so I can update faster.**

**Violleet - Geryon was the three-chested monster from The Battle of the Labyrinth.**

**I wasn't sure what to write for this chapter, so it might be a little slow.**

* * *

I stumbled through the forest, tripping every few minutes over the tree roots stretching over the dirt path I was following. I didn't know where it led to, but then again, I didn't know where I was going. All I knew was that my friends were in danger and I had to do something about it. It was hard enough to formulate a plan under normal conditions, but right now, exhausted from the explosion back at the Factory, it was pretty much impossible. _How had I set the building on fire? What had Geryon done to me? _But Geryon was dead, so I had nobody to answer my questions.

My body trembled with the urge to just stop and lie down on the same patch of dirt I was standing on, so I decided I needed a distraction to keep me awake. Then I remembered Riptide, my trusty sword that I had stuck with through all my years of monster-fighting. '_Ah, the good old times,' _I thought. '_Just some one-on-one fights with evil forces that had been defeated before. Nothing new like this.' _And with those thoughts I began to reminisce about all my old fights. '_Yup, that hellhound was no match for me' _I thought, almost sub-consciously pulling out Riptide without looking at it and swinging through the air in a complicated series of attacks that I had learned while lounging around this summer at Camp Half-Blood. I guess I wasn't looking where I was going and accidentally gouged a 6-deep gash in a nearby tree.

_'Ow!' _said the tree. I jumped about a foot in the air. Then I remembered about the dryads living in trees. I walked away quickly, whistling and trying to look as inconspicuous as possible with a sword swinging in my hand. I almost felt sorry for the tree spirit, but then I figured I'd better spend my time worrying about what I should do next, so that's just what I did. And, of course, nothing came to me. I sighed, sat down, and decided to just lay back against a tree for a while, just to think. After about 2 seconds, I was fast asleep.

* * *

There was good news and bad news. The bad news was that I was in a dream again. The good news was maybe I would figure out where to go. I was on an island, in a palace that seemed vaguely familiar. I felt like I had when I had dreamed about being Hercules on the way to fight Atlas, like I was in someone else's body, but this time I didn't feel super powerful physically. Instead I felt smart, more than I had ever felt before. Which, I realized, was probably not saying much. _So this must be how it feels to be a child of Athena' _I thought.

I walked into the main room, and heard a voice. "Odysseus!"

I looked around to see a man walking towards me. "Polites, what's the matter? Does Circe's food not please you?" '_Circe' _I thought. The crazy sorceress that had turned me into a guinea pig. _Stop! Get out of here now! _But nobody could hear my warning. The man, who I guessed was Polites, replied, "No, my lord. It's about home."

"Home? What do you mean?" I asked. But in the back of my mind I felt a long-forgotten memory kindling.

"Ithaca. The home we have all forgotten." And it was then that I knew that I must get back to Ithaca.

The scene dissolved into another scene, where I was standing before a woman, Circe.

" -must get back to Ithaca at once." I was saying. Circe looked at me sadly, not happy like I imagined she would be if she was about to turn me into a pig. Which was good.

"Odysseus, son of Laertes and the gods of old, master mariner and soldier, listen to my counsel. Your journey is near impossible."

Here I interrupted, "There is a way, surely! You don't mean-" Circe cut across my cries.

"Listen! To make your journey home, you must journey to the underworld and seek the shade of Tyresias, the blind prophet. It is only he who has the wisdom to guide you safely home."

I just had time to see Odysseus slump dejectedly before the scene dissolved again, this time for good.

* * *

I woke up, my head sore from being propped up against a tree the whole night. I knew what I had to do next, but I didn't feel any better. I wasn't familiar with Tyresias, but I figured that if Odysseus thought it was bad news that he would have to meet him, I knew it wouldn't be good for me either. I tried to distract myself again by pulling out Riptide again and practicing my swings. I didn't want to be rusty if it came to fighting some monsters.

Just then, the trees on my right side rustled, and a dark shape came bounding out. It was a huge hellhound, the size of a tank. I'd faced many before, but that didn't make fighting them any less daunting. I dodged as it lept towards me, rolling out of the way. I uncapped Riptide and turned around to face the beast. As it charged again, I swung my sword in a downward arc, expecting the monster to dissolve into dust. Instead, I yelped and leaped out of the way as the hellhound went up into flames as soon as it made contact with my blade.

Though I was normally more comfortable around water, being a son of Poseidon and all, I felt a strange connection with the fire, a sensation in my gut almost identical to how I felt when controlling water. I pushed the feeling down with ome effort, and the flames instantly vanished, leaving no trace of a hellhound ever being there. The throbbing in my head had started again, and I couldn't think straight. Normally, I would freak out, but I didn't give myself the chance to. I needed to get to the underworld and find Tyresias, so he could tell me what to do next in my quest. I knew for sure that this had something to do with Geryon and his experiments on me, but now that he was dead, there was nobody who could tell me what had happened to me. One thing I knew for sure though: no monster would do anything to help me on purpose.

Now that I thought about it, I did seem to recall him saying something about how I should have been devoured. I pushed the thought aside. I resumed walking along the path, albeit slightly more wary of unexpected monster attacks than before. I was thinking about the hellhound when I realized that it had burst into flames when my sword had come into contact with it. I uncapped Riptide to take my first good look at it since I had got it back. Yeah yeah, I know what you're thinking- _He just fought a hellhound with that sword and didn't even look at it?_ But using Riptide had kind of become like second nature to me now, and I didn't really stop and stare at my blade in the middle of a fight.

Anyways, I studied my sword, and I could tell something was different from the beginning. It was the same color as before, celestial bronze, but as far as I could tell, it wasn't made out of metal but out of light. Kind of like a lightsaber. I liked Star Wars, but I wasn't sure if I really wanted to battle ancient powerful beings with a shaft of light. Plus as far as I could tell, I hadn't become a Jedi - I still hadn't made any progress on using the Force, and I had been trying to use it every day for the past 6 months. I almost wanted to touch the edge of the sword to make sure it was light, but then I remembered what had happened to the hellhound I'd fought and decided that I didn't feel like spontaneously combusting today. Instead, I capped my sword.

I didn't know about what had happened to me, but I was pretty mad that my sword had gotten messed around with. It had been by my side for what now seemed like my entire life, and it just didn't feel the same anymore. Disgusted, I stuffed Riptide (in pen form) into my pocket and stopped in the road. I had no idea where I was, and my chances of somehow getting to Los Angeles were looking slim indeed. I knew I had to find a different way to get into the Underworld.

Then a thought struck me - ask Nico! Okay, so maybe it wasn't the hardest idea to come up with, but I felt pretty proud of myself for thinking it up. I fished around in my pocket for a drachma, but of course I came up empty. _'Whatever'_ I thought. _'I just won't pay Iris then.' _ I stopped by a stream, made the water rise up creating mist, and asked to see Nico.

"Where's the drachma?" asked Iris, sounding annoyed. At least I assumed it was Iris, because the voice was coming from the mist.

"Umm... how about I pay you later?" I asked, my hopes of her forgetting payment dashed. But I sensed my act wasn't going to work, and I couldn't afford to lose connection.

"Look," I tried. "Either you let me talk to Nico or I'll stab you with Riptide." The mist instantly dissipated. So maybe that wasn't the smartest thing to say.

I thought about the Underworld and if there were any other entrances, but as I thought about it, my head started that familiar throbbing that I now recognized happened whenever some unknown power was shown in me. Maybe the creature in me was from the underworld and could get me there. Curious, I didn't try to resist it and the throbbing grew louder until I was suddenly engulfed in flames. Then I felt myself falling backwards, through the earth, and the dirt path disappearing from in front of me.

**I didn't particularly like the ending, but I want to get this chapter up. If you have any feedback, review!**


	7. Energy

**I'm out of school so hopefully I can update quicker now. Anyways, not too much plot movement going on here, but it's a pretty important chapter.**

The earth sort of split around me, creating a narrow gap just wide enough for me to fall through. I couldn't see the bottom of the chasm, and the daylight above me was soon out of sight. I was pretty scared, because first off, I don't like falling down random holes into nothingness, and second, I was pretty sure I'd go splat on the ground when I hit the bottom. So naturally, I was screaming my head off.

I hit the bottom, my eyes shut tight. Surprisingly, my impact didn't hurt at all, so I opened my eyes and found I was in a river. A warm river. Normally I would just be happy that I didn't fall on the hard looking ground near the banks, but something felt wrong. For starters, the river wasn't a normal clear water river, but it was red and thick. I hauled myself up and crawled out of the water. Then I looked back at the river and realized that it was _lava, _not water. I scrambled a little farther away from the river. As far as I knew, my water powers didn't extend to lava rivers, but the lava didn't seem to affect me at all. I wasn't going to take any chances and find out though.

I walked away from the river and found that I was in a familiar looking cavern. The same cavern that I had seen in my dream with the demon. I just wanted to get out of there, but I couldn't see any exits so I decided to look around for a way out. It was dark so I kept slipping on the loose rocks that were all over the floor, and I was miserable. After a few minutes, I saw a building off in the distance. It was just a small, stone rectangular building, but it still looked odd surrounded by miles of flat ground.

_'Probably a monster's home' _I thought. But I had no alternative, so I decided to give the structure a visit and see if it had a map or something. But before I could reach it, the big stone door swung open and two demons walked out. The first was tall, about 10 feet, and was reddish-orange, just like a fire. In fact it seemed like his whole body was a twisting, flickering flame. He even seemed to flicker out for a few seconds every once in a while and bent over whenever the wind blew. Behind the Living Flame guy was a second demon, this one slightly shorter at only 9 and a half feet tall, and was blinding yellow. Just looking at him made my eyes hurt. They didn't seem to notice me at first, but I knew that it was inevitable that they'd find me.

I crouched to the ground and looked for a hiding spot, but unfortunately there was only flat ground all around me. I was trying to calculate whether I could reach a boulder that was about 500 feet away when they saw me. I immediately turned around to run in the opposite direction, but somehow, as soon as I turned around, the yellow demon was right in front of me. Taking an involuntary step back, I looked to my right, and sure enough, there was the first demon.

They were just sort of staring at me for a while, and I was getting a little nervous as well as scared. I pulled out Riptide and held it out in front of me, but I didn't know what a lightsaber sword would do against a demon.

The fiery demon spoke up first. "Where is he? What have you done with him?" he demanded, his words crackling like fire.

"What are you talking about?" I asked. "Who are you?" I edged farther away to my left.

"Where is our brother, Demon of Energy? I smell him on you. I smell him _in _you." He advanced upon me.

I had no idea what the guy was talking about. "You're crazy! I don't know what you're talking about, now get away from me!" I knew I had to get out of the cavern and help save my friends at Camp Half-Blood, but time was running out.

"Then so be it. I shall destroy you myself," said the red demon. He saw Riptide in my hand and sneered. "Do you think that you can defeat me with a puny sword? I am the Demon of the Flame!" It looked as if he expected a great reaction, but I just looked at him blankly.

I knew that the demon was probably a lot more powerful than me, and I needed a plan. Unfortunately, Annabeth wasn't there to help me with that. While the first demon talked, the second had disappeared. I wasn't exactly reassured. Then the demon sprung._  
_

I let my reflexes take over as my adversary advanced. He had pulled a flaming sword out of thin air and swung it at my head. The attack took me by surprise, and I probably would have been decapitated right then and there if I hadn't slipped on the rocks under my feet and fallen on my back, the blade swinging over my head. I rolled to my feet and swung Riptide in an arc, but the demon was too quick for me and dodged my attack easily. Slowly, he started gaining on me, pressing me back towards the river of lava behind me. I was on defense now, barely able to fend of his blows.

I took another step back and blocked the flaming blade of the demon. His sword's intense heat singed my forearms as I tried to press it back. We were in a stalemate, each trying to push the other one back. I glanced behing me to see that the lava was right behind me. Then I thought of a plan. The lava in the river didn't burn me when I was in it. It acted just like normal water. Maybe I could the lava in it. I focused on the lava behind me, feeling all the power that it contained, all the heat, all the _energy._ Then I willed the lava to let it go.

The feeling wasn't like controlling water. Water had come naturally, flowing. This was completely different. It was intese, painful even. But it was exhilarating. The whole river behind me exploded, the lava rushing towards the Demon of the Flame. He was shocked, looking at the wall of magma that flew towards him. Just as he was engulfed by the lava, the demon looked at me. "The energy-" he started, but was cut off as he was doused by the river. When the lava splashed away and I could see the spot where he had stood, the demon was gone.

My sword suddenly felt heavy in my hands, and I slumped over. Slowly, I made my way over to the stone building when the second demon appeared in front of me. He took a step towards me, and I knew this was the end. I was in no condition to fight another demon. But then a voice came from the darkness above us.

"Let the hero be. He must return to despair." The demon in front of me disappeared and the voice laughed, a harsh sound that reverberated through the air. It pounded into my skull, rendering me unable to do anything. I crumpled to the ground in a heap and covered my ears, but the sound kept hammering into my brain. I felt myself losing it as the darkness seemed to close around me. I was desperate, and I knew that if I didn't keep myself in control there would be a replay of Mt. Saint Helens soon, but I didn't care. The last thing I remembered before I was taken away into the dark was a fiery face, laughing at me. Then it said something I didn't understand, but chilled me to the bone.

"What will your friends think of you now, - demon?" My brand fired up with pain, and my vision went black.

** Review, tell me what you think!**


	8. Return to Camp

I woke up at the bottom of a hill. It was probably pretty early in the morning, judging from the fact that the sun was just coming up, and the weather was gray and gloomy. I sat up and noticed that I had been lying at the base of a hill with a big pine tree at the top - Thalia's tree. _Camp! My friends were in trouble!_ I immediately tried to stand up but I felt dizzy and light-headed so I had to sit down again. I silently cursed the demons under my breath. They were attacking camp and I couldn't even walk to the top of the hill to see what was going on. My anger willed me to my feet again, and this time I stood, swaying for a second, then steadied myself and began trudging up Half-Blood Hill.

As I climbed it, I remembered what the demon had said to me. _'What will your friends think of you now - demon?' _I quickly pushed that thought to the back of my mind. _He must have me confused for somebody else._ But that justification sounded weak, even to myself. So I decided not to think about it, and instead focused on reaching the top of the hill, which seemed to be taking an unusually long amount of time. When I finally did get to the top, I wasn't expecting the scene that lay before me.

To tell you the truth, I wasn't sure exactly what I was expecting. Maybe total carnage, or at least some campers milling about. But camp was untouched and empty, kind of like a ghost town. Mystified, I walked towards the amphitheatre. But there was no smoke signaling a funeral, which was good. But it didn't get me any closer to finding the campers. After I had walked through all 12 cabins while calling my friends names but getting no response, I was getting a little scared. I stopped by at Cabin 3 - my cabin. I tried the shut door, and it swung open. Inside, however, it looked as if nobody had ever lived there. All my things that I had left on the floor and under my bunk when I set out on this quest were gone.

There was obviously nothing of importance there, so I turned to leave. But before I reached the door, an image appeared in front of me. _No, not an image, _I corrected myself. _An Iris message._ The picture was slightly blurred, like the connection was bad. '_I wonder if there's reception on Olympus,'_ I thought. Then I remembered the message. _Stupid ADHD _I grumbled.

In the picture I could make out the form of a centaur. It looked frantic, but tried to remain calm when it spoke.

"Percy? Percy, can you hear me? There isn't much time!" came a familiar voice.

"Chiron? Is that you?" I asked squinting at the centaur. I realized it was Chiron, and I was relieved to see that he was alright.

"Percy, you've got to leave, now! It's a-" His next few words were drowned out by static. "It's a trap." My mind was trying and failing to comprehend this.

"Chiron, where are the others? Where are you?" I asked. "I'm at camp but there's nobody here." Chiron opened his mouth like he was about to answer, but then I hear footsteps coming from his side of the conversation, off to his right. I couldn't see the source, however, because both wherever Chiron was, he was surrounded by darkness. For the first time, that crossed my mind as odd.

If Chiron had been frantic earlier, it was nothing compared to how he looked now. It was unnerving seeing my mentor like this. After all, he _had _been around for a few thousand years, not much fazed him anymore. This time when he spoke to me, it was in a whisper, so low I had to strain my ears to the limit just to make out his words.

"Don't trust him. Leave! Find us at the Fortress of -" Chiron started before his eyes widened and he quickly swiped through the Iris Message, leaving me standing alone in my cabin facing the door. '_Of course he wouldn't be able to finish his statement' _I thought. _'Since when has it been so easy for me.' _That thought didn't do much to cheer me up because I immediately thought of Annabeth and the promise she had made to me after we had defeated Kronos. I didn't know what to do next, but suddenly I felt that I should just leave camp. It didn't feel like the camp I knew, it just felt _wrong._ I don't know how else to explain it.

I exited my cabin and started walking back towards the camp borders when I passed the Big House on the way. The door was slightly ajar, giving me a view of the corner of the ping pong table inside. _Why was the door open? Was it possible that someone was still here? _After a few moments of indecision, I decided just a quick check couldn't hurt, and I headed over to the Big House. When I stepped in, the room seemed empty at first. Then I heard the _clop, clop _of horse hooves on the floor and looked up from the table I had been looking at to see - _Chiron. _

_How could that be? I had just seen Chiron a couple of minutes ago, and he definitely wasn't in the Big House that was filled with light from the sun that was by now high in the sky. _But when I looked at him, I was sure that I was looking at none other than Chiron.

"Ah, Percy. I've been looking for you," said Chiron. He sounded just like Chiron too, but there was a little difference. It wasn't noticeable at first, but I could tell there was something off about the centaur in front of me.

"Chiron? Where is everyone?" I said uncertainly. He smiled at me. Not the nice smile that Chiron had. It was a pretty grotesque smile.

"Come with me Perseus," said Chiron, ignoring my questions. He advanced on me, getting between me and the door. At that moment, my brain must have finally woken up, because a bunch of alarms went off, saying _trap, trap._I whipped Riptide out just in time to stop myself from being trampled by the fake Chiron. The flat of blade clanged against him, pushing him to the side. The noise alerted me to an important fact - he was made of _metal._ I was fighting a robot. I wasn't sure how to fight him, but I ducked out of the way of a kick aimed to my head from his hooves and watched as he ran to the opposite side of the room. I figured out his plan as he grabbed the bow slung across his back. There wasn't much room to shoot in the building, but I knew that there would be no way for me to block his arrows if he shot at me.

I knew that I didn't have time to get to him and attack, so I just tried to concentrate on the powers I had used in my fight against the demons. I hadn't completely mastered it, but I was getting the ability to use energy down. I concentrated on the sources of energy in the room, and decided on the most obvious one. I focused on the electricity in the wiring of the robot, and made it go haywire. The machine short-circuited and fell to its side, crackling. I was relieved at my victory and was halfway out the door when I heard more footsteps. I turned and saw about 50 more imposter Chirons. There was no way I could take them all on, but I got into a defensive stance anyways. The last thing that I remembered was a punching bag arrow hurtling towards my face.

* * *

I woke up in a dark, damp dungeon that looked just like the place that Chiron was in. Groaning, I propped myself up on one hand and leaned against the wall, clutching my nose gingerly with the other. It was hurting like crazy from where I had gotten shot, punched, whatever by the arrow.

_'Great' _ I thought. _'Just great. Now I'm stuck in some prison with no chance of saving anyone or doing anything. I've failed.'_

I heard footsteps and looked through the bars in front of me to see a giant with a lantern leering at me.

"So this is the great hero?" it mocked. "Well there won't be any heroic adventuring while you're here. We don't allow that stuff in the Fortress of the Demons."

"What an original name," I commented.

The giant's face turned red with rage and he bellowed, "No speaking out of turn! We'll see if you'll still talk back after the masters are done with you." He turned away and walked on to the next cell. I craned my head, trying to make out it's inhabitants, but I couldn't see in no matter how hard I tried. Then something clicked. _The Fortress of the Demons. That's what Chiron was trying to tell me. _Maybe all hope wasn't lost. I was where Chiron wanted me to go. I stood up and almost took a step, but then found myself sprawled on the hard stone floor. I hadn't noticed the shackles on my feet.

That complicated things, but I was confident that I could escape. I hadn't failed my friends, and I wasn't planning to.

With that in mind, I fell into a much needed slumber.


	9. The Fortress

**I kind of winged this chapter, but I have the next one planned out for the most part.**

When I woke up, I found a bowl lying in the middle of my cell, so I guessed that the guard must have put it there while I was sleeping. I picked it up to see if there was anything edible, because I was ravenous, but I decided to pass on the chunks of mystery meat that the bowl contained. Pushing it as far away from me as possible, I stood up and stretched my legs. I looked down at my feet and saw the shackles on them. They were pretty heavy duty, and it seemed as if the prison had some magic that prevented Riptide from reappearing in my pocket, so I had to find another way to get free.

I sat back down to think, resting my hand on the moist floor. That got me thinking. Maybe I could use the water around me to cut through the metal. I concentrated on collecting the water around me. Nothing happened. I tried again, but to no avail.

I started to panic. Controlling water had always come easily to me, why wasn't this working? I tried one last time and was relieved to finally feel a feeble tugging sensation in my gut. Trying harder, the feeling grew in intensity until water came flowing up through the cracks in the stone floor of my cell. I formed a blade made of water in the air and sliced through my chains. Then I turned towards the back of my cell. The wall behind me was solid; there was no way out. I heard footsteps behind me, and figuring that the guard was coming again, I quickly sat back down and put my feet back in the chains, so that it looked like I was still shackled.

The guard stopped at my cell, but instead of the giant that I had seen earlier, there was the minotaur standing outside my cell. This was bad news because the minotaur still had a grudge against me for killing him twice. In fact, he seemed to be enjoying himself, thinking that I was bound and helpless. I just shook my head at his stupidity. He just ignored the door to my cell, ripping the bars off like they were made of clay instead. Then he slowly started advancing on me.

I felt something in my pocket. It was my sword. At first I was confused, because I thought that it couldn't reappear in the cell, but then I realized that in breaking the cell open, the cell's magic was broken. The minotaur made a grab for me, still thinking that I was vulnerable and chained to the ground, but I surprised him by pulling Riptide out and burying it in the monster's neck. The Minotaur bellowed in fury as it realized that it had been overcome again, but it was abruptly cut off by it's body disintegrating into dust.

I got up and sprinted out through the opening at the fron t of my cell. My cell was at the end of a corridor, so there was only one way to go. I ran down the aisle for a few moments until I came to the next cell.

"Who's there?" came a fearful voice. I didn't answer, but I had a feeling that I'd heard the voice before. Slowly, I walked up to the bars of the cell and looked inside. It was dark so it took a few seconds for me to be able to make out the shape of someone cowering at the back of the cell.

"Stay away!" came the voice again. The person stood up, and when I saw their goat legs my suspicions were confirmed.

"Grover?" I asked. "It's me, Percy."

The figure looked up and I could make out Grover's face. He looked hopeful at first, but then backed away again.

"I don't believe you," he said. I was debating whether or not to use water to cut Grover's cell open with water when I remembered I had Riptide. I hacked the lock of his cell's door open and ran inside to grab him. What I wasn't expecting was for him to punch me in the face. He continued to flail about, but now I just dodged his feeble blows and started dragging him outside. When I'd got him out of his cell, I examined his face. He looked pretty beat up, and I shuddered to think about what he'd gone through. '_No wonder his attacks were weak, even for him' _I thought.

Suddenly his body went limp. I started to panic and laid him on the floor, checking for a pulse. I sighed when relief when I found one, and figured he must have been so weak that he passed out. I draped Grover over my shoulders and kept moving towards the exit. Luckily he was pretty light, so I made it without to much trouble. The other cell was empty, so I continued and had just made it outside the fortress when suddenly alarms started blaring behind me.

Swearing, ran another five hundred feet and ducked behind a couple of barrels of greek fire standing on one side of the prison. Setting Grover down, I surveyed my surroundings. The Demon Fortress was right on the edge of a forest, but it wasn't lush and green like most forests were. Instead, it looked like there had just been a huge forest fire that had burned and charred everything in the forest. The trees were sparse and charcoal black, and everything was spread out pretty far away from each other, so it wouldn't make very good cover. There wasn't really anywhere else to go though, so I decided to head there. I was about to step out from behind my hiding place when I saw a bunch of dracaena and assorted monsters pouring into the door to the fortress. While I was waiting for the mob to disappear inside, Grover started to move.

He hadn't said much in his unconscious state besides the occasional muttering of "food", but now he woke up, his eyes fluttering open. When he saw me, he started to back away again. I sighed in frustration. This was completely unlike Grover, he was always trusting, sometimes too much.

"Grover," I said. "I'm really Percy, I'm your friend."

He narrowed his eyes and said, "Prove it."

I just stared at him for a second. Prove it? How was I supposed to prove who I was? Then I remembered our empathy link, and connected with him. '_Believe me now?' I asked._

"Percy! It's really you!" Grover bleated, tackling me in his infamous goat hug. "I thought they had captured you."

"Wait, how did you know that?" I asked.

"Well, the guards were always coming to take me, and yesterday they were gloating about how they captured you and what they would do to you."

_To take him? What did that mean?_ I voiced my thoughts and Grover shuddered. He opened his mouth to reply, but just then I noticed a horde of monsters advancing on us. I guess I had kind of forgot that we were supposed to incognito and that there were about a hundred monsters looking for us. I glanced at Grover who was still weak. If it were just me then I probably could have escaped, but it would be a lot harder to do that while protecting Grover. But there was no way I was going to leave my best friend behind, so there was no alternative but to fight.

I sliced the first couple of monsters to dust pretty easily, but there were too many of them. Slowly, the beasts started overpowering me, pressing on with their strength of sheer numbers. I ducked an empousai's lunge and whirled around a drakon's swipe, slicing a hellhound across the muzzle in the process, but a giant came at me with his club. I was too slow to move out of the way, and I would have been smashed into a Percy Pancake for sure if it hadn't been for Grover playing on his reed pipes that he had procured from somewhere, causing the giant to stumble. That gave me enough time to stab him in the stomach and make my way over to Grover.

I looked around, trying to find something that I could use to my advantage. My gaze finally stopped on the barrels of Greek Fire lying against the fortress. I beckoned towards the barrels, and Grover seemed to understand. We backed away from the barrels as far as we could, which gave the monsters the impression that we were retreating. The monsters, emboldened by the thought that we were now easy prey, charged forward into blast radius. I told Grover to cover me for a few seconds, and he picked up a sword from the ground that a monster had just dropped and joined in the fight.

I had tried out my powers before, so it was slightly easier to ignite the Greek Fire, especially since it already had so much energy in it. It worked better than I had hoped, blowing apart the majority of the monster force and half of the fortress as well. Unfortunately, that meant that we had to get out of their quick. I grabbed Grovers arm and started to run. We made it to the forest without any trouble, mainly because the few monsters that were left were still milling about in confusion. We ran for about five minutes before stopping at a tree that was much like the others. In fact, all of the trees were pretty much exactly the same. Charred, burnt, and twisted. Since this tree was wide enough to have shade, we stopped to rest.

I remembered what Grover had been about to tell me.

"Where did they take you?" I asked Grover.

It didn't look like he wanted to answer my question, but after a while he reluctantly said, "They took me to their master, a demon. He tortured me, wanting to know where you were. I told him I didn't know but he didn't believe me."

"But how did you get caught. Where's everyone else from camp?" I asked.

But our conversation was cut short once again, though not by monsters this time. I felt a hand grab my arm and the sensation of shadow traveling (I had shadow-traveled a couple of times). I reappeared near the Styx in the underworld with Grover and - Nico di Angelo.

"Whew! I finally managed to save you," said Nico looking at us.

"Save us?" I questioned.

"Well, Kelp Head, I stopped you from getting recaptured and tortured," Nico said. "I think I at least deserve a thank you."

I rolled my eyes. "Thanks. Now where are all the campers. When I went to camp I just saw a bunch of robot Chiron's."

I guess they didn't understand my last statement, so I had to explain my whole trip to camp and capture. They didn't seem surprised at all, not even at the mention of the robots.

"Well, camp was overrun by robots made by the demons," started Grover. "Which was pretty smart because they didn't have to get permission to cross camp boundaries. They attacked us by surprise, but luckily, they weren't aiming to kill and just captured pretty much everyone at camp."

Then Nico said, "Luckily I was away from camp, so I wasn't captured. I've been staying here and trying to save people from the prison ever since. The only problem was that I could only save them if they were outside of the fortress. So... you guys are the only people that I've saved."

"Okay, what are we doing now?" I asked. I knew that I had to save my friends, and they would probably know something about my quest from their time in prison.

"I know that the rest of camp is in the main fortress. They took us all their but moved me to the smaller prison because they said you might try and save me, and they wanted to get information out of me."

"Well," said Nico. "It doesn't look like I can shadow-travel anyone else to safety, so we'll just have to storm the prison."

**Kind of an abrupt ending, but whatever. **


	10. The Rescue

**This story is dragging on longer than I had originally planned it to. I'll try to wrap it up in the next few chapters. **

Me, Nico, and Grover had tried to think of a plan to attack the main Fortress and rescue everyone from camp. I was hoping that Chiron would have some information that would help me finally complete my quest. But eventually, we gave in to the fact that we were getting nowhere and decided to forget it and just get in, free our friends, and get out as fast as we could.

I was currently standing behind a tree, doing my best to conceal myself behind it's narrow trunk. Looking at the Fortress, I saw that it was pretty much the same as the building I had escaped from yesterday, but much bigger. There were no windows, so I couldn't look inside our try to enter it that way. That meant I had only two options: either go through the main door where there would be the most guards, or try to bust through the walls. Neither of those looked too promising right now.

Suddenly, Nico appeared in the shadow of the tree to my right. Seeing him, Grover popped out from wherever he was hiding and made his way towards us. I was pretty sure that if anyone tried they could see us pretty easily, but it still felt right to try to be stealthy when conducting a prison break.

"I just scouted the area," whispered Nico. "There are no entrances besides the door. I don't even think there are vents for ventilation. We'll have to go through the door."

We charged towards the door, a huge stone slab that didn't seem very movable to me. Nico took his place to the left of the door and Grover went to the right, which of course left me standing in the middle.

"Well, what are you waiting for? Open the door!" Grover whisper-shouted.

I didn't really like the ominous vibes that were coming off of the door.

"Why don't you open it?" I asked. It was childish, but why did I have to do everything?

"Just do it Percy," Nico hissed. I sighed and tugged on the door handle. It was locked. _'This is great.' _I thought. _'What am I supposed to do now, knock?' _I turned to Nico.

"What now?"

He concentrated on the door in front of us for a second. The earth underneath us rumbled, and Grover and I stumbled back away from the door. Slowly, a crack formed in the earth around the stone door, and it started to sink down into the ground. _'Show-off'_ I grumbled.

"Why didn't you just do that earlier?" I asked Nico after the door had seemingly vanished into the ground. He just shrugged.

The three of us crept inside the Fortress, wary of any sudden attacks from hidden guards or monsters. By the time the first cell had come into view, there had still been no attacks, which was odd because if anything, there should have been more guards since this was the main prison. That cell was empty, and so were the next few that we saw. Finally, after a couple of minutes of walking, we reached the end of the building.

We stopped, facing at the stone wall in front of us. Grover tapped it with his reed pipes.

"It's definitely real," he commented.

Then came a bright light from behind us, and we turned to face what seemed to be an army. They weren't humans, but they weren't normal monsters. Not the good old Greek monsters that I was so used to fighting at least.

A monster stepped forward. It was a giant, 8 feet tall with grotesque features, that almost seemed human - if you turned your head sideways and squinted. The only difference was that their faces seemed distorted and stretched, almost as if they were scorched with acid. Judging by his golden armor - the rest of the giants had none - he was the leader of the group. There were at least 50 giants, and I wasn't liking our chances against them, especially with me and my friends backed up against a wall.

When the giant spoke, he only addressed one of us. And that person just had to be me.

"Perseus Jackson," he boomed. "Did you think that you and your puny friends could just walk in here, the most secure prison in the world, and free your friends?" He pulled something out of his pocket and pressed a button. In the cells around me, I could see people shimmering into view. In a matter of seconds, all of camp was visible in the cells. Before my mind had even completely registered that, the giant raised his sword.

"Your friends shall watch you die." Then his group of giants charged at us. I tried to fend them off, but there were too many, which forced me to remain on the defensive. Nico was doing pretty well, but Grover never was a very good fighter, and he was in trouble. I tried to make my way over to him, but the waves of monsters just kept coming and pushing me back. I looked over towards him again and almost got my head lopped off by an axe.

Swearing, I barely managed to duck back in time, only to be knocked off my feet and into the wall by a blow from another giant's shield. Shaking my throbbing head, I got up immediately and flailed out with Riptide, trying to regain my footing. Luckily for me, all the giants turned away, distracted. Unfortunately for Grover, they were all headed his way.

Grover must have been overwhelmed by the monsters. I sprinted towards him, Nico right behind me. I could see Grovers figure lying on the ground, hardly moving. The giants were all surrounding him; the only reason that he was still alive was because they were playing around with him. One of them was poking my friend with a stick while the rest of them jeered. I didn't know what I was going to do, but my anger kept me running. When I was halfway there, one of the giants looked up and saw us. He looked surprised for a second, like he had forgotten that we were there. Then he alerted his friends.

The leader quickly stepped up to Grover's prone body, raising his sword high. I saw the blade come down, seemingly in slow-motion, and I knew that I wouldn't be able to make it in time. My best friend was about to die right in front of me, and I could do nothing to stop it. I couldn't think anymore, my mind went blank. Desperation welled up inside me, and I knew I had to save Grover. As the giant swung his blade down in an arc towards Grover's neck, I directed all my energy towards him.

I saw a flash, and the last thing I remembered was kneeling next to Grover's limp body.

* * *

When I woke up, I was in a familiar bed in a familiar building - the infirmary. Disoriented - I shook my head. Slowly, the events in the prison came back to me. I groaned and sat up. I had to find Grover. I walked out of the infirmary and towards the Big House, where I found Chiron._  
_

"Chiron! You're back?" I asked.

He smiled at me, and at that moment I knew that this was the real Chiron, not some robot.

"Thanks to you, my boy. But I'm afraid we have some problems yet. You still have your quest to complete. I take it you haven't got very far in it?"

"Well, I got a little sidetracked when I had to save you!" I replied defensively.

"Yes, well, I think I may be able to help you on your way. While in the Fortress, I have been able to find out a location heavily guarded by the demon and his army of monsters. I have reason to believe that this may be the hiding place of the 'lost powers'."

"If the demon already knows where the powers are, why doesn't he just take them? Wouldn't he be practically invincible with them?" I asked.

Chiron seemed to have already thought about that, because he readily replied, "My guess is that only a demigod can claim the powers. The demon won't get a demigod to do it for him because he's afraid that they will turn on him and doesn't trust demigods." Here, Chiron hesitated. "If you do succeed in your quest, beware. The demon will stop at nothing to get you on his side, for it would be the only way for him to accomplish his goals - to take over the world. Unfortunately, he would raze it to the ground first, and then rebuild upon the bones of his enemies. But if you fail, then we're doomed for sure."

That was a lot to take in, but I didn't really know how to respond to Chiron, so I just said, "Okay."

"You'll do just fine, Percy," Chiron said.

"Thanks, Chiron. Is that all?" I asked.

"One more thing Percy. I wanted to talk to you about your feat when you incinerated the giants."

I had a feeling that this was going to come up.

"I don't really know what happened. What about it?" I asked uncomfortably.

"All we saw was a flash, but it seems that you have gained some powers recently," Chiron stated. It wasn't a question, so I didn't answer. "What exactly happened to you?"

I decided that I might as well tell Chiron everything. Maybe he would understand everything that was going on, because I sure didn't. When I had finished, Chiron just sat there for a minute, probably thinking.

Then he said, "Well, I don't know exactly what effect a demon being sealed in you will have, because they aren't exactly Greek beings, but this is ... interesting to say the least. Well, I can only tell you where to head next. You must go to a cave on the island of Ophiussa. There you should find what you seek. However, be careful. The enemy will have thier best guard posted there."

Then I remembered who I had been looking for before I saw Chiron.

"Where's Grover? Is he okay?" I blurted out.

Chiron looked a little surprised at the sudden change of topic, but informed me that he was in critical but stable condition and should be fine in a couple of days. Then he told me that I should leave by nightfall for my quest.

"Time is running out, Percy," Chiron began. "You must gain these powers and save the world before the demons muster up the force to take over the world." And on that happy note, he cantered out of the Big House.

**Feedback would be appreciated. Review!**


	11. The End

**And here's my effort at bringing this story to an end. I think this chapter might be a little rushed, but I think it's alright. Thanks to everybody who reviewed/favorited/followed this story, and special thanks to wow this is an original name who accounts for half my total reviews. If anyone's still reading this, don't forget to tell me what you think. **

Once again, I stood at the crest of Half-Blood Hill. I was ready to go off and finally finish my quest. Chiron had told me that since the island (I don't remember it's name) was far away and the world couldn't afford to have me killed before I saved it, I would be teleported there. Which was good for two reasons.

One, I didn't feel like going off on some month long trek just to get to where I needed to go.

And two, teleporting is cool.

Anyways, I was just standing on the hill waiting for something to happen. After a minute, the world around me went dark, and I appeared in an unfamiliar field of grass. _'__Definitely not as cool as I thought it would be' _I thought. I spotted the cave I was looking for about 500 feet away. There was nothing guarding it. This seemed almost too easy, but there wasn't really anything to do but to walk towards it.

As I approached the cave, I tried to get a better look at what was inside it. It was too dark to see much, even though I was right at the cave's entrance. I was only ten feet from the opening when I heard a screech come from above me. I looked up to see a flash of wings and fangs hurtling towards me. It landed right in front of me, twisted to the side so it could fit in the ten foot space between me and the cave. It was a dragon, just like the bronze automaton I had seen during a capture the flag game a few years back, but this dragon was definitely real, not a robot. It opened it's mouth to eat me, and I knew I wouldn't be able to dodge in time to escape it.

I knew I had only one chance to survive. I jumped into it's mouth before it could snap me up, which I guess surprised it because it didn't even try to bite me or anything. I didn't exactly want to get swallowed, so I stood up and stabbed Riptide into the roof of the dragon's mouth. Which must have hurt, even if my sword was like the size of a toothpick to the beast.

I tried to think, but it was kind of hard because I was literally a foot away from being eaten. I knew that there was no way I could defeat the dragon from the outside, so I would have to take it out from the inside. Then I had another one of my brilliant ideas.

I waited for the dragon to open it's mouth, which didn't take long because it was roaring in anger at me still being alive. Then when I thought that there was enough time to make it past the foot long razor-sharp teeth that were in my way, I climbed out of the mouth of the dragon, and using my sword like those picks that mountain climbers use, started making my way up the dragon's face. Which looked like it hurt. A lot.

So of course, the dragon was all shaking around trying to throw me off it's face, but eventually I got up until I reached it's nose. I entered it's nose before I could chicken out and started making my way up to it's brain. By now, I was kind of having second thoughts about my plan. _'What if it breathes fire on me'_ I thought when I was halfway up. But it seemed like luck was on my side for once because I didn't get roasted. Either that or the dragon didn't breathe fire.

Anyways, I got up until I could see the dragon's brain, pulsating in it's skull. Which was pretty nasty. Then _hack, slash _went my sword. I'll spare you the details. After my job was done, there was just the simple matter of crawling back down to the outside world and I was standing before the cave I had been looking for all along.

Tired and covered in dragon mucus, I walked into the cave, Riptide out before me illuminating the way. The cave was empty, just a vast expanse of stone. I kept walking until I hit the other side, and there, lying on the ground, was - a piece of paper.

It wasn't fancy paper either. It was just a piece of 8.5 by 11 inch paper, like the kind you put in your printer. I didn't see how a paper was supposed to help me become a supremely powerful being, but I picked it up anyways. And when I looked at it, I nearly had a heart attack.

There was nothing there. It was just a blank sheet of paper.

I just stood there, not comprehending that the culmination of my quest was worthless. _'Is this some kind of sick joke' _I thought. _'Like the dragon scroll in Kung-Fu Panda?' _Angrily, I crumpled the paper up and stuck it in my pocket. I knew I wouldn't have any help in my fight. I was on my own.

* * *

I stood in the middle of the underground cavern where I knew the demon was. I pulled out Riptide and stood as tall as I could.

"Come out, demon!" I shouted. "Fight me!"

After a second, there came a deep laughter out of the darkness. It made me tremble with fear inwardly, but I tried not to look scared.

"I am the oldest and most powerful of the Ancient Ones," said the voice, still chuckling. Then it became more serious. "None can face me. And none shall stand in my path!"

Something started forming out of the darkness around me. The air temperature dropped about 20 degrees, which sucked because it was already pretty cold. Then there was a burst of light so strong that it penetrated through my closed eyelids and still blinded me. The light died down and I opened my eyes. In front of me was a a demon. He was pitch black, which made it hard for me to see him through the darkness. He was big, but what struck me more than his stature or appearance was his aura of power. It was rolling off of him in waves. And that's when I knew that I made a mistake coming to fight.

"You are stronger now, with the power of our kind in you. But not strong enough," said the demon.

"What power in me? I'm not a demon!" I replied. But I knew that there was something different in me. The person in front of me just chuckled.

"Still in denial? Then maybe this will make you think otherwise." He waved his hand and a sort of screen just appeared in mid-air. My eyes transfixed, I watched as I saw myself fighting alongside Nico and Grover at the prison. I watched as Grover fell and saw myself turn towards him. Then came the part where I had incinerated the giants. I saw my body burst into flame, like I had just internally combusted. I watched in horror as the video slowed down to half speed and I saw myself streak towards Grover. But that's not what scared me. The flames had taken the form of a demon.

"Stop it," I shouted. I didn't need proof that I was host to the enemy. I didn't want to be reminded that I was infected. I rushed towards the demon, swinging Riptide. But I knew from the start that I was completely outmatched. The being in front of me drew a huge sword. He lazily twirled it at speeds too great for my eyes to follow.

I swung my sword at his neck but he parried lazily, with a flick of his wrist, and I went stumbling back. I tried to charge him again, but to no avail.

"Is that all you've got, _hero?_" he asked, sneering the last word mockingly. "Don't worry. I'll make it quick."

Then he stepped forwards and brought his sword down in an arc towards the top of my head. It almost cut me in two, but I managed to raise my own sword just in time. The force of the blow was so tremendous it felt worse than holding up the sky. And believe me, I know what I'm talking about when I say that. My arms trembled as I tried to push his blade away, but instead, it just pushed me down farther and farther. But apparently, the demon wasn't going to stand around playing push the sword, because he just kicked me in the chest, causing me to fly about fifty feet and narrowly miss bashing my brains out on a boulder.

As it was, I plowed into the ground and lay there winded for a second. _'Why would I think that I could defeat him when the Olympians together couldn't?' I thought._ Now I had failed the world. The Ancient One was ambling towards me lazily, obviously not in a hurry.

I pulled out the wadded up paper from my pocked, smoothing it out to rip it up. '_It had caused all this' _I thought irrationally. When I was about to rip it up, I saw that I had turned the paper over. And guess what, there was something written on the other side. Go figure.

I pulled the paper closer to read the words, but before I could, they sort of floated up into the air. Time froze around me and I heard a voice, probably saying what was on the paper.

_**Perseus Jackson, it is time for you to learn about your destiny, and to choose whether or not to accept it. For thousands of years, the evil in the world has accumulated-** _images flashed through my mind: death, destruction, darkness. _**- and there has been little good to counter**_** it.** I could see a group of people like my friends at camp, fighting off a much larger crowd of monsters, until they were completely overwhelmed.

**_Finally, it seems that there is so much evil that it is threatening to destroy the balance between good and bad in this world, if it's allowed free reign. There is only one chance to save your world now. Someone must take up the burden. Someone must shoulder all the evil in the world so others will not have to. And that someone could be you._**

"What do you mean take up the burden?" I asked.

_**All the excess evil will be stored up in you, making you a vessel of destruction. You already have a demon in you - the Demon of Energy. There are two sides to energy. The first side, which you have seen, is the good side. But there is a darker, more malicious side as well. It must be activated, but we are sure that you will not give in to it. That is why we have chosen you, Perseus. You are a person of good nature, you will be able to resist the evil. If it were anyone else it would consume them.**_

"So that means nothing will happen to me, even if I have all the world's evil in me?" I asked. That didn't really make sense.

_**Alas, this is where your choice comes in. Being a host for so much darkness does not come without a price. Eventually, your soul shall be consumed by chaos. Nobody can force you to choose. But the evil will either be in you, or contained by the whole world. You must choose.**_

My head swam. I always had thought of growing up, having a normal life, even though I knew it was almost impossible for a half-blood. But I knew that we didn't have happy lives, and I was no exception. Now I was told that I would be consumed by darkness, I almost couldn't do it. Almost. But then I thought of my friends and family, everyone I cared about. And I knew that I could let the same thing happen to them.

"I accept."

_**Then so be it. From now on, you shall be the container for all that is evil.**_

**Third Person POV**And time unfroze. The demon took another step and then stopped. A force was pulling at him, ripping away his entire being.

"What- what have you done? You cannot stop me!" he bellowed. But soon he was no more.

Percy was in a trance, his body rigid, his eyes closed. Floating in the air with tendrils of vapor entered his mouth and nose, black and twisting, he was taking in the essence of evil. He shuddered once, then fell limp to the ground.

* * *

The next day, there was much cheer and merriment at Camp Half-Blood, as would be expected when you had just narrowly missed being destroyed. But one figure stood apart, away from the others. Like an outcast. The hero, who had always been at the center of everything, was now set apart.

Because although the day was bright and beautiful for everyone else, for Perseus Jackson, the world would always be dark.

**And that's the end of my first every fanfiction story.**


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